By: Sister Tammy Saberon SSC
Columban Sister Tammy, a regular contributor, is from Molave, Zamboanga del Sur. She was on mission in Hong Kong before going to Myanmar.
More than five years ago, when I had just arrived at Myitkyina from a vacation in the Philippines, Sister Matthew FMM, a nurse, came with a sad face telling me that her patient was unconscious and that he could die soon. She then told me about him.
Sister Tammy Saberon SSC
Columban Sister Tammy, from Molave, Zamboanga del Sur, shares another story from Myitkyina in the north of Myanmar.
In other countries, Christmas decorations are usually up long before Advent begins, especially in commercial centers. But for us here in Myitkyina, Myanmar, where 89 percent of the people are Buddhists, there are no Christmas decorations around except in churches, convents and priests’ houses. Christmas 2004 was the first time we, the Columban Sisters, celebrated Christmas as a community in Myitkyina. It happened that Sr Kathleen Geaney, our then Congregational Leader, was with us for Christmas.
By Sr Tammy Saberon SSC
Sister Tammy, from Molave, Zamboanga del Sur, helped to prepare the way for the return of the Columban Sisters (www.columbansisters.org) to Myanmar. They had been forced to leave in the early 1960s when the country was still known as Burma.
It was St Columban’s Day, 23 November 2001 in a small village
Pig for St Columban's Day
In the early 1970s the Columban Sisters began a formation program in the Philippines. Filipino Sisters before that trained overseas. We thank Sister Mary O’Dea SSC for contributing the stories of the vocations of three who came through the new program and who have celebrated their Silver Jubilee. You can learn more about the Columban Sisters at www.columbansisters.org andwww.columban.ph
Sr Tammy (2nd L-R with fellow Columban Sisters and companions in Myanmar
By Sister Tammy Saberon SSC
Most of us spend Christmas at home with our family and friends. But Sister Tammy has spent this special season these last two years far from home in Myanmar. Here she tells us how she celebrated Christmas in this Buddhist country.
Myanmar, formerly Burma, is a Buddhist country, but Myitkyina (MIJ-in-awe) Diocese has the largest population of Catholics. When I came here in 2001 I lived in the small village of Edin. My first Christmas was quite different from what I was familiar with. Carol singers went from house to house to raise funds, like at home, but I didn’t see any Christmas decorations in Catholic homes before or after Christmas. The only ones to put them up were the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary (FMMs), with whom I lived, who did so only three days before the feast. The catechetical school’s chapel also had some decorations, including a crib.
By Sr Tammy Saberon SSC
Sr Tammy Saberon, a Columban Sister, was missioned to Hong Kong from 1982-1991. Then she was recalled to the Philippines to do vocation work from 1991-1996. After her renewal in England for one year she received her new mission assignment to Myanmar. Below she shares with us how she is.
By: Sr. Tammy Saberon, SSC
Here is a little story of how Sr. Tammy, a Filipino missionary in Hong Kong came to write many songs which are now available in a book called: “God had a Dream for You.” In this article Sr. Tammy now in-charge of vocation tells us how she came to write songs and thanks all those who helped her to produce the book and the cassette tape.
By: Sr. Tammy Saberon
Sr. Tammy Saberon, (author) a Columban Missionary in Hong Kong for 81/2 years. Sr. Tammy now the Mission/ Vocation Animator of the Columban Sister in the Visayas and Mindanao
One of the strange things that a Missionary experiences is to long for something she used to do or used to have at home but at the same time to discover something beautiful in her new land, something beautiful in her new land, something which compensates.
